Thomas e



(No Model.)

T. R; LOWERRE.

ooEK FOR BOTTLES. No. 251,908. Patented Jan. 3,1882.

WITNESSES} INVENTOR:

aq E v I BY ATTORN Y.

PATENT OFFICE.

THOMAS E. LOWERRE, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

CORK FOR BOTTLES.

SPEGIFIGATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 251,908, dated January 3, 1882.

ApplicationfiledApril 18,1881. (No model.)

pers provided with devices independent of the bottles to facilitate their extraction without the use of cork-screws or their equivalents and without spoiling the'cork, which latter may thus be used over again an indefinite number of times. Corks of this class are shown, for instance, in Patent No. 37,249 and in Patent No. 182,064. In the first case cited the adhesion between the circumferential surfaces of the cork and the bottle-neck being generally greater than the cohesion in the small central portion of the cork through which the wire is vertically inserted, the sail portion is liable to break out in the attempt to extract the cork. In the second case cited, a cord being tied tightly around the cork from bottom to top, the cork thus tied, after being stored up some time before used, loses its natural elasticity necessary to resume rotundity and does not keep air-tight when applied to its use. My present invention overcomes these objections and is very cheaply applied.

In the accompanyingdrawings, Figure 1 rep-- resents'a cork constructed according to my invention and in position to be pressed down into a bottle-neck shown in section.

Fig. 2

represents the-cork removed from the bottle. Similar letters of reference indicate like parts in the several figures.

A is the bottle-neck. B is an ordinary stopper of cork, rubber, or

other suitable elastic material. The cork has a hole, 11, burned through it horizontally or at right angles to its axis. The cork is slit open from the bottom to the said hole 11, the slit being parallel with the hole, and a small piece is cutoff from one or both edges formed by the slit, as shown at 0.

C is a piece of cord or twine, which, when bottling, is held stretched in about the position shown in Fig. 1, and thus will wedge itself through the groove 0 and the slit to the hole b as the cork descends. When the cork is driven down to the desired depth the ends of the cord C will project on opposite sides of the cork to allow the ends to be tied together 7 in a loop, as shown in Fig. 2, for-inserting a finger to extract the cork, if so desired; but this is not needed, as the cord 0 may just as well be grasped by the free ends. A tolera-bly soft cord is preferably u sed,which flattens and easily embeds itself in the cork without causingleakage. The latter is, however, safely provided against by the portion of the cork which is below the hole b and which tightly fits the neck of the bottle in the usual manner.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

A cork having a hole made through it across its axis and a slit which is parallel with the said hole and reaches across the entire width of the cork and the entire depth from its bottom to the said hole for the reception of an extracting-cord, substantially as set forth.

THOMAS it. LOWERRE. Witnesses:

JOHN M. STELLE, A. W. ALMovrs'r. 

